Christianity at risk of dying out in a generation

Christianity is just a “generation away from extinction” in Britain unless churches make a dramatic breakthrough in attracting young people back
to the faith, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has warned.

Clergy are now gripped by a “feeling of defeat”, congregations are worn down by “heaviness” while the public simply greets both with “rolled
eyes and a yawn of boredom”, he said.

His comments at a Christian conference came as a stark report laid before the Church of England’s General Synod warned that its position as a
“national institution” will be in doubt if numbers in the pews drop much further.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, also underlined the scale of the crisis telling members of the Synod they must “evangelise or
fossilise”.

It seems Lord Carey has some legitimate concerns. If you do a search on ATS or use any search engine about Christianity dyeing out you will come
across a platitude of articles. There have been several studies done one the subject that mirrors what he is saying. Basically he knows the church
needs to change because they are not attracting new followers like they used to and need to be. What makes this article worth paying attention to is
he isn’t an atheist saying religion is going the way of the Dodo he is the former archbishop agreeing with the atheists saying it(unless changes are
made to stave it off).

Typical Sunday congregations have almost halved since 1970 to just 807,000 in the most recent figures.

Archbishop Sentamu told the Synod: “Compared with evangelism everything else is like rearranging furniture when the house is on fire.

“Tragically too often that is what we are doing – reorganising the structures, arguing over words and phrases, while the people of England are
left floundering amid meaningless anxiety and despair.”

I'm not really worried about christianity dying out (good riddance), although I find it unlikely, but I am more worried about people turning to Islam
or offshoot, quasi religions like scientology simply because it's new, and the preaching from those highlight everything that's wrong with
christianity but conveniently omit their own problems. Basically replacing one problem with another.

It will not happen anything soon but with luck some day ALL religions will die out. I feel that they must. If the human race is to survive than ALL
religions have to go. Though out history far more people have been killed by some thing related to to some religion than there has been killed by
non-religion related events combined. As for me I stopped believing in any and all religions the same time I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny
and Tooth Fairy.
You can flame me all you want but that is the way I feel about the mater.

I sort of agree with you except I don't think Christians are at risk of converting to Islam in mass but to put the article into context when they say
Christianity is going to die out I think they are referring to organized religion and the Catholic Church as a controlling factor. There will be
Christians around for the next hundred years but the presence of the church is fading away especially in the UK. The US is the odd one out of the
developed nations with religion there has been a decline in religious folk here but at a slower rate than other countries. The only developed nation
that has seen an increase of people finding religion specifically Christianity has been Russia.

Western civilization is in a state of rapid decline verging on collapse. All of its institutions are incompetent to fulfill their missions. The
church is collapsing? So are libraries, learned societies, help agencies, even governments. In the US, even volunteer fire departments are
disfunctional. If it isn't government or business, it is going extinct.

And even governments are incompetent. Incompetent to win wars, provided social services, reign in banks, or prevent espionage and leaks.

Business is incompetent as well. The western governments are all busy propping up the institutions that remain from capitalism's heyday, like
propping up the lifeless skeletons of dinosaurs in a museum exhibit.

Christianity and the church is expansive in China, in Asia as a whole, and in Africa as well. Just as the west turns atheist, more humans claim the
Christian faith than at any time in the religion's history. Fully 1/3 of the human race self-identifies as Christian--an all time high. And
Christianity for a decade now is the fastest growing religion on the planet.

It IS dying in the west; but that isn't an indictment of faith. It is an indictment of a civilization undergoing senescence.

This could actually be the best thing to ever happen to Christianity. If Christianity dies to the point, the con men no longer control it from the
pulpits, and there are no more billions to be made from their congregations, Christianity gets a fresh start. It truly becomes a religion of
individual choice, rather than group mentality. It would be like cleaning house, so to speak. Leaving only those who are genuine, and not just
following a sect.

On the other hand, this has been coming for a long time. We are at a time in our "social evolution" that not only is the LGBT community coming out
full force, but the non-religious, atheists, agnostics, and others have been silenced by the majority long enough. We're going to see all the major
religions become a minority in the next few generations, I believe.

The only risk of large segments dying out are those murdered in the middle east under the sanction of our international bankers, royal families and
western leadership, who are wolves in sheeps clothing.

But Christianity is the one religion that is closest to the ideals and leads us home, so its not likely to die out.

Hahaha! That's the dumbest thing I've heart on ATS all day! Thanks for the laugh! We're not fighting wars due to religion, we're fighting it
for greed, power and money. We'll continue to fight for this for centuries to come!

fixer1967
It will not happen anything soon but with luck some day ALL religions will die out. I feel that they must. If the human race is to survive than ALL
religions have to go. Though out history far more people have been killed by some thing related to to some religion than there has been killed by
non-religion related events combined. As for me I stopped believing in any and all religions the same time I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny
and Tooth Fairy.
You can flame me all you want but that is the way I feel about the mater.

In order to reduce us to a pack of ill-educated, ill-bred, isolated and uncivilized idiots who need to be ruled by force, TPTB had to undermine three
things - our families, our neighborhoods, and our faith communities.

That means breaking apart the traditional family which we see with the push toward single-parenthood and marriage equality and the general idea that
all family "models" are equal. And with the steady erosion of the nuclear family, you also see an erosion of the extended family. How often are we
bombarded in the media with stories telling us about how we ought to dislike our extended relations? It used to be that familes, and extended
families, relied on one another for help and support in times of trouble. Blood being thicker than water and all that.

Who among you can name your neighbors, genuinely say that you like them or trust them or could rely on them if you had some temporary trouble?
Remember the good old days when you and all your neighbors' kids ran the neighborhood like a free range pack from dawn til dusk?

And it used to be that just about everyone went to some kind of church every Sunday. Or at least enough of us did that it carried over for those who
didn't. And our church community was another one from which we drew strength in a pool of people we knew, trusted and could count on to help lift us
up if we ever ran into trouble.

All three of these things made us better able to be a self-reliant and free people who neither wanted nor needed the strong, paternal hand of the
government on our lives.

Watch any of them pass away and mourn for our future.

(church in this post is a generic term for a house of any kind of worship)

Klassified
This could actually be the best thing to ever happen to Christianity. If Christianity dies to the point, the con men no longer control it from the
pulpits, and there are no more billions to be made from their congregations, Christianity gets a fresh start. It truly becomes a religion of
individual choice, rather than group mentality. It would be like cleaning house, so to speak. Leaving only those who are genuine, and not just
following a sect.

On the other hand, this has been coming for a long time. We are at a time in our "social evolution" that not only is the LGBT community coming out
full force, but the non-religious, atheists, agnostics, and others have been silenced by the majority long enough. We're going to see all the major
religions become a minority in the next few generations, I believe.

Agreed. Your comment brings to mind that movie called The Book of Eli. Not a fan of Denzel Washington mind you, but IMO one of his better roles.I
can't see religion disappearing for a great long while. Christianity is simply losing its appeal. It'll be back when it's needed.

I can't see it happening myself, Christianity will be around for a while. There hasn't been a disaster in England recently, I'll ask the old man
to send one that way so they can start renewing their beliefs.

Hahaha! That's the dumbest thing I've heart on ATS all day! Thanks for the laugh! We're not fighting wars due to religion, we're fighting it
for greed, power and money. We'll continue to fight for this for centuries to come!

"Fighting for religion" Hahaha, going to pass that one along!

Pass it along as far as you want. But also remember to pass along the actual inception of greed, power and money. Unless of course you don't know and
in your case...that's my guess.

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